WAHM Blog - Working At Home Marketer -

The Most Common Social Networking Mistakes

2008-08-27T12:59:00.010-05:00

The Wall Street Journal lists the 4 most common mistakes individuals and businesses make when trying to use sites like Twitter and Facebook.

August 21, 2008, 9:55 am
Social Networking: Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make
by Kelly Spors

Many businesses these days are venturing into the Wild West of social media, trying their hand at things like blogging and Twitter and creating profiles on social-networking sites. But along the way they’re making lots of mistakes.

These mistakes shouldn’t be taken lightly. How your business is perceived in the Web 2.0 world will affect your reputation and your ability to connect with customers, associates and potential customers. (Who wants to hire a company that can’t even manage an engaging, thought-provoking blog?)

Sta.rtup.biz, a small-business social-networking site, recently had some thoughts on how small businesses are botching their forays into the social-media world. Here’s a look at some of the most common mistakes from them and other social-media experts:

– Bare Profile: Signing up for a Facebook account is the easy part. Before you blast emails to 1,000 of your customers and friends, a business should spend some time thoughtfully building a profile with an attractive photo, background and contact information.

– Too Little Personality: Lighten up. The social-media world is about engaging customers on a more personal level. Your “About Me” shouldn’t just be dry facts about your business. Make sure you add some personal touches. Humor often helps.

– Too Much Hype: Using social media shouldn’t be about blatantly selling a business. It’s about making connections and creating credibility so that people will like you and trust you and eventually want to buy from you. Use it to interact and meet new people – don’t get overly promotional.

– Not Enough Fresh Content: Engaging others through social media needs to be an ongoing, frequent process. You can’t just build a profile and let it sit idle. Preferably you want to be refreshing your content regularly (daily, if possible) so people come back for more.
________________________________

SO ASK YOURSELF DO YOU HAVE A:
* thoughtful profile/attractive photo/ background & contact information on your sites?

* “About Me” that is not just be dry facts about your business. Add some personal touches. A little Humor goes a long way.

* way to build relationships, interact and meet new people – don’t be overly promotional.

* engaging people through your social media,on a ongoing, frequent process?

I hope that I am doing all this.
Check my wordpress blog for more on my site.
You can find out more about social networking http://www.workingathomeincomeblog.com/

Thirty Day Challenge Make a Dollar with your Teams help

2008-08-02T11:28:00.000-05:00

Its August the first 2008. Time for the third Thirty Day Challenge.
If you dont know its the biggest world wide training boot camp online. And get this its absolutely FREE!

You can find out more here
Get crackling and join a team.

Fantasic Woman's Site

2008-02-16T16:18:00.002-06:00

I have found a great women's entrepreneur site called
BraveHeart Women.

All are amazing entrepreneurs who are teaching others how to create freedom from home...

We are making a difference in our personal, professional, and global community.

Achieving Freedom is yours...A Life by Design is yours..
Ellie Drake

Please visit my site with this fantastic group of women

http://braveheartwomen.com/kmaclean/
____________

Forums

2007-11-03T14:16:00.001-05:00

Forums can be a great place to discover new ideas
and get your questions answered. However there is a
downside to them .... if your not careful they
can be terrible time wasters. Your time is money.

If you want a short list of great forums to keep you
organized where you can get answers to
your questions from people that know and more
importantly where misinformation is addressed
and removed.

Getting quality feedback can be invaluable for
growing your business. Getting it from people
that actually talk the walk even more so.

Now this has a cost but you can try it for seven
days and if you don't find information that will
grow your business cancel before you get
billed.

Getting an answer to your question from people
like Paul Myers, John Taylor, Liz Tomey and Mike
Paetzold to name just a few are really invaluable.
Saves you time and time is money right?

Here is the link:
http://www.linkbrander.com/go/46603

I recommend "Forum Know How" if you really want expert advice on marketing. See you on the forum. I am on most boards -KathrynMac

New Networking Bookmark Communities

2007-10-06T16:35:00.000-05:00

Do you know APSense?
If not, you certainly should.

Apsense is a Free Business Social Network where people get paid to come together to share their business experience. Bring your online business to life by building your own business social network, business website and much much more within minutes!

There are many features,
* create a profile business page,
* a business blog
* user networking sites
* create your own group

And its f.ree no user fees.
Sign up here
http://www.apsense.com/invite/kathrynmac

Rotatrix Friends Network
Canadian based.
Beta Testing.

This group is being designed to bring together those members of RFN who share the dream to build together and are serious about working together to make RFN the most successful Friendship Network ever launched on the Internet.

Also, you now earn 10 Points per qualifying activity & 1 Point per Profile Page view, see how some of our members are racking up the Points.

The Rotatrix Matrix is not like the others! Your position in our Matrix is determined by how many Points you earn!!
Anybody really can be at the TOP!! It to is f.ree to join.

www.rotatixfriends.net

FACE BOOK

As my husband says, everyone is on face book, even our major of Ottawa! So even my husband has joined.

Here is my link - need some friends
You must sign up as a facebook member first.

Kathryn Maclean search - Winchester ON Canada
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=584138407

Another Great Marketing Training Tool

2007-08-04T12:57:00.000-05:00

Desk Top Bucks
Very Impressed with this program, and amazingly
its F.ree So its very easy to promote.

I decided to see if videos live up to
their promise by trying them out myself. Here's
what I found:

*************************************************
Overall Quality Excellent
*************************************************

The first thing I noticed when I opened up the
first video was the great production quality.
He used Camtasia Studio for the production, which
is now the industry standard for creating
high-quality screen capture video products. The
audio is near studio quality, and the graphics
are very professional. These videos were made by
someone who KNOWS what he's doing. Well done!

-http://kathiemaclean.tripod.com/desktopbucks/

Join our New Ezine about working online

2007-07-15T08:53:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning - just a quick note.

I will be getting out my first Ezine out next week.
If you would like tons of info about working online you can go to my new site and sign up for our newsletter to be invited to join our Ezine.
Or I now have a squeeze page you can opt in on at the site...

New site: Income Power At Home
PS. turn up your speakers
http://www.freewebs.com/kmaclean557
Please feel free to leave any questions or comments here on the blog.

How to Write Killer Email Promos That Get Results!

2007-07-08T15:14:00.000-05:00

Email Promos Exposed - Video Series:

Have you ever been faced with the task of having
to write an email promotion to your list, and
then realized that you didn't know what to say or
how to say it?

Michael Rasmussen's new video course "Email
Promos Exposed" promises to solve that problem
for you by walking you through the actual process
of creating killer email promos step-by-step.

*************************************************
If you're in a hurry, just go ahead visit this
URL to get instant free access to these videos:
http://www.emailpromosexposed.com/?thankyou-page=56823

*************************************************

I also liked how Michael divided the videos up by
section, and then again by sub-section. For
example, one video is all about the subject line,
and then there are different parts of that video
that each cover a certain area of crafting a
killer subject line.

*************************************************
Go ahead visit this
URL to get instant free access to these videos:
http://www.emailpromosexposed.com/?thankyou-page=56823

*************************************************

Here's the URL where you can get instant free access
to the videos right now. Michael Rasmussen

http://www.emailpromosexposed.com/?thankyou-page=56823

Income from Home - New Sites

2007-06-30T07:50:00.000-05:00

Hows your summer going? I've been very busy setting up a new system of websites. Finally putting the finishing touches on everthing.

You can easily join f.ree affiliate programs to see just how they can promote your businesses as well as join some very good fee type businesses that will really promote your products.

If you start at this site it will take you to two more and others after that. Bookmark these to return as I update info often.

Enjoy my sites this summer.
Kathie
PS. turn up your speakers
http://www.freewebs.com/kmaclean557

Whats a SQUEEZE page?

2007-05-27T12:37:00.000-05:00

Well there is something BRAND NEW on the net this week that promotes your business by asking people to use a sign in form to get a free product as well as info about your product.

You might be even more interested if I tell you that its FREE!

You need a autoresponder and I use the best one I have seen, AWEBER. You connect the squeeze page to your auto responder using the form sign up box.

http://www.aweber.com/features.htm?221295

Promote it on traffic exchanges, safelists, your website. Plus if you sign up as a GOLD member you can use back end products such as OTO links that directly go to pay your Pay Pal for immediate sales.

So far I have 5 pages done and will be making more for every product I have. This is really great stuff.

Here is my link to Robert Puddy's Squeeze pages

http://www.instantsqueezepagegenerator.com/index.php?rid=760

I have much more information about this and other forms of marketing on my main website.

http://www.internetincomewah.com

You are the expert at Free IQ

2007-04-24T21:43:00.000-05:00

If you havent heard of Free IQ yet you really need to listen to this. Its all about online audio presentations by an expert - and thats You!!

Free IQ sounds great, but why would all this information be free?

Great question, and the answer is simple. You see, most of the speakers, authors, experts, consultants, gurus, coaches and trainers are experts because that topic is what they do for a living. For many, their area of expertise may be their whole career.

So when you see an online presentation by an expert – whether it’s a video of a seminar, an audio recording of a presentation, a Powerpoint® full of research or even a free e-book – many of the experts have even more information and content for sale.

But before you decide to buy anything, whether it’s an inexpensive e-book or a teleseminar or webinar or even one-on-one consulting, we believe it’s better to watch or listen to an online presentation by that expert or consultant, first.

And all consultants know this. People who are in the business of helping others by teaching them what they know, often give presentations on their topic for free. They speak at trade shows and conferences, they give initial consultations at no charge, they publish articles in industry magazines, they blog – and they do a hundred other things to show what they know…all for free.

visit my first page:

http://freeiq.com/overviewofsiteforsquidoosecretsvideo/

P.S. There's a great free tutorial on how to create all the different types of affiliate links available on Free IQ. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely check it out.

It only takes 13 minutes and 14 seconds, and you can watch it here: www.freeiq.com/howtocreateaffiliatelinksinfreeiq

Squidoo? I do Do you?

2007-04-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

Have you heard about Squidoo?
Its very very kool!!!!

Better than a Blog? Easier than a website?
Yes I'd say so... much better. The Site its self has its own ranking of about 5 or 6. So you start out in the search engines ahead of a lowly blog or site before you even put together your first page which is referred to as a lens.

I listened to a report over the weekend from Bob the teacher - the Squidoo expert and learned many interesting things about Squidoo and what you can do we it. Its really great for weird niche markets. People find your lens with Google keywords. One idea might be to do something on American Idol who will be doing a big benefit for African children soon. This link in can great as you are able to link your lens to your blogs, websites ads etc.

My first lens is not really great, but thats ok because I can go back and improve it as I learn more about the medium. The fact that its there is ok for now. Have a look.

Kathie Maclean... a Squidoo expert in the making

http://www.squidoo.com/Incomeathome/

My splash page
http://kathiemaclean.tripod.com/squidoo/

How to Succeed in Internet Marketing

2005-11-08T22:14:00.000-06:00

So what exactly is the magic formula needed to become a successful internet marketer? The bad news - there is none. The good news is that you can create it. Nothing comes easy or without effort and the same is true for internet marketing.

First of all you need to develop a plan. Decide exactly what is is you want to achieve. Silly as it sounds, but a lot of people start out with no defined strategy in place. A lot of the time they don't even know what they want to achieve. So firstly, sit down and consider what success means to you and then draw up some steps to take to make that happen.

You will always come up against challenges and setbacks, everyone does at some point. This is when it is important to stick with your original plan. Always look for ways in which you can make changes if necessary, but never lose sight of your goal. Decide which products or services you will promote and explore all the ways in which you can do that. Don't be afraid to experiment or be innovative.

The internet is full of 'overnight success stories'. Do not expect this to happen to you. You will have to put a lot of work into your business. You need to look at it in the long term. You want to create a business that will provide you with a long-term stream of income. It is next to impossible to speed up that process. Eventually your hard work will pay off, so keep persevering.

At times it will seem like you are going nowhere. Nothing you do seems to work for you. A good piece of advice is to seek out forums where you can build relationships with like minded individuals. In this way you can stay focused and receive help and encouragement.

It is also important to know exactly how you are progressing. To do this in an informed way you will need to have set your goals. As you reach them, congratulate yourself on having achieved your aim. Then progress onto your next goal. Each goal should be designed to take you up to the next level. Doing so gives you short term successes and also helps to keep your enthusiasm up while giving you feedback on your progress.

It is not an easy route though it will seem to be from all the success stories you see every day. Understand that it is worth the effort to achieve your dream and vow never to get discouraged. Look on problems as stepping stones that need to be overcome. Others have done exactly as you are doing and the difference between success and failure is not being consistent and doing something each day to further your efforts.

Be confident and build the desire to succeed in every thing you do. You are creating your own internet marketing business which will give you a long term income. Always keep that in mind and do not get discouraged or into a negative state of mind. The goal is worth achieving and when you get there all the hard work you put in will have been well worth it.

About The Author:
Ben O'Rourke is an Online Marketer and Software Developer. Free eBooks: http://seazzy.com Free Software: http://seazzy.com/software

Are You an Affiliate ?

2005-11-04T10:58:00.000-06:00

I am an affiliate for many different business products,
see my site Internet Income w.a.h. http://www.internetincomewah.com/

Setting up an Affiliate System

Affiliate programs enable businesses to generate a lot traffic and consequently boost sales through promotion by third party individuals or sites. It is a cost-effective way to advertise your products and services as you dominantly pay for only efforts that turn into sales.

Setting up an affiliate system can be an easy or overwhelming task depending on how many affiliates you want to recruit, your payment policy, availability of time and the kind of product or service offered.
When it comes to affiliate systems, there are two options for a business : you can outsource the entire system or run your own customised affiliate system on your web host. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

If you have a relatively small amount of affiliates to deal with, then you can run your own affiliate software but if you are going to recruit an unspecified or a large number of affiliates, then you may need to outsource.

The reason is, you will find it easy to deal with a huge number of sign ups, track payments, manage banners, monitor clicks, among others. The shortcoming is that you will have to pay flat fees or a percentage of sales generated to the company maintaining your system.

A self-managed affiliate system will work well if you have a small number of recruits , have the time to answer queries and send out a few checks each month.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF AFFILIATES
There are several types of affiliate programs you can choose from. There is the pay per sale whereby an individual is paid only if a sale is generated from that affiliate’s link. It’s certainly the least attractive to people unless the product or service is in high demand and the most profitable for businesses.

Another type is the pay-per-lead whereby you pay for traffic only. Here the affiliate is paid only if a visitor is generated from the affiliate site. Its attractive to affiliates but costly to website owners because of the possibility of non-converting visits. This type is good for high-sales producing sites as you can pay affiliates from sales generated.

Another option is the pay-per-click in which case you only pay if your link is clicked. If you have a site which has a high conversion rate , then this option is ideal for you.

You can also opt for the tiered system. With single tiers, your affiliates receive a single payment whenever someone refers a client to you and it is ideal for less popular products or services or when you are starting up. In a two-tier programs, an affiliate can receive a percentage of sales generated by an affiliate who signs up from his site and it is profitable for websites with high conversion rates.

A variant of this, the multi-tier, offers an affiliate residual income from sub-affiliates who sign up under him and indefinitely. This type is good if you have high sales and can support perpetual payments.

CONSIDERATIONS
An important consideration in setting up an affiliate is whether you will approve affiliates manually or automatically. It may be recommendable to start an affiliate program with your established customer sites and progress to new ones. You may have to control the affiliates if you are dealing with pay per click as the quality of visitors will be a factor in sales generation. Manually reviewing also enables you to judge the website or individual affiliates to see if he befits your company status (for example is the site objectionable?) or likely to spam which case may bring you trouble.

If you use your own affiliate system, then one of your biggest challenge would be how to pay affiliates a percentage of what you receive from customers. In this regard, you can rely on a software such as Affiliateshop(www.affiliateshop.com) to track and manage recurring commissions.

CONCLUSION
So depending on your needs, you can go for an outsourced affiliate system or a self-run type. You may go for an outsourced affiliate system such as Commission Junction(www.cj.com) or Linkshare(www.linkshare.com) if you anticipate huge transactions. If you would require credit card processing such an affiliate involving downloadable products like ebooks, then clickbank(www.clickbank.com) may be a good option.

If you intend to run your own affiliate system, then a popular choice is AssocTRAC which comes with a wide array of support.

About The Author:
Mark Kenny runs the affiliate program at Trading-Web-Solutions. To join our program or for more details, visit http://trading-web-solutions.com/affiliate.php

Sick of Spam?

2005-10-27T12:22:00.000-05:00

Heres something you can do about it!

Spam... SPAM . . SPAM . . SPAM . . Yes it really was named after the famous Monty Python sketch featuring the intrepid Erik the Viking. http://support.antenna.nl/spammonty.html

What Is Spam? Unsolicited e-mail. Over 60% of all e-mails are now unsolicited sales messages - and it's growing. Junk mail is the scourge of the Internet. While it's a real shame that something as useful as e-mail should be contaminated by this claptrap there are serious implications to it's phenomenal growth.

EU businesses spend £1.5 billion a year trying to counter it and now Governments are looking at ways legislate against it.In 2004, the UK Government brought in legislation to discourage the spammers but the penalties are derisory compared to those introduced by other countries. This has had the unfortunate effect of making the UK a prime target for international spammers. It is estimated that by the end of 2005, 80% of all UKJ e-mails will be spam.There are no ways to avoid it completely that we know of but you can take steps to minimise it.

Common Sense Tips to Reduce SPAM

*Never visit web sites advertised by Spam mail If you do, never, NEVER buy anything

*Do not reply to the e-mail or click an unsubscribe link - doing so merely confirms that your e-mail address is active and that the message has been read.

*Delete Spam messages immediatelyIf certain domains are particularly bothering you report them to your ISP.

*Don't register for free services - especially those that don't allow you to opt out of third party and/or related products and services - they'll forward your address on to other Spammers.

*Set up a dummy web based e-mail account such as Hotmail and use this address as a scrap bucket if you can't avoid providing an e-mail address. Organisations such as Hotmail routinely clear out dead messages to save space which means once you have set up your dummy account you can forget about it.

*Blocking Unsolicited Mail In Microsoft Outlook Express
Once you have received an unsolicited mail into your inbox select it by clicking on it once.

- Move the pointer to the MESSAGE menu option on the top menu bar
Select BLOCK SENDER This action adds the senders address to a growing list of blocked senders. Each time a mail is received from any of those in the blocked list the mail is moved automatically to the DELETED ITEMS folder and does not appear in the INBOX.

- Blocking Unsolicited Mail In Microsoft Outlook 2000/2002/XP
Use the RULES WIZARD within the TOOLS menu to create a rule to send any mail suspected of being Junk Senders to the DELETED ITEMS folder.When an unsolicited e-mail arrives in your Inbox then select it by RIGHT clicking on it once and choose to add it to the junk senders list.Delete the mail manually from your Inbox The next time a mail arrives from the same source it will be moved automatically to the DELETED ITEMS folder. As the list grows the amount of junk mail in your Inbox will diminish.

There may be light at the end of the Spam tunnel. Uncle Bill at Microsoft is known to have 'a thing' about Spam and is determined to kill it off. Governments too are looking for better ways to reduce this nuisance.

About The Author:
Steve Latimer is Systems Manager with Arrival Computers
http://www.arrival-computers.co.uk
PC Doctor+ Guides are aimed at users new to computing. They may be reproduced and included in web sites as additional content provided a link is added back to the Arrival Computers Web Site.

I am going to post business articles at least once a week, be sure to bookmark and return.

Home Shoppers Club

2005-06-11T06:56:00.000-05:00

Very busy this week,its now so hot in central/eastern Canada, sweating & working overtime! Love working at home!!!

This week I am featuring a Home Shoppers Club. A great business to join. They have a new training, marketing, business plan that is marvelous. I will be joining them next week as a V.I.P.

I HAVE JUST JOINED - ITS A WONDERFUL COMPANY
Cant wait to start my training!!

I'm excited about all the posssibilites with this excellent company.

NEW UPDATE!!!!

A week later - I see just where I can go with the great company. The training is excellent! My upline sponsors are so helpful, we work together everyday. I am making this my main business now and concentrating fully on doing the business full time. I just cant say enough good things about this company. Well actually I can, lol
See my new website below

http://kathiemaclean.tripod.com/worldwideshopping

My personal page that all VIPS learn to make in our training.

http://snipurl.com/g1di